Hello,
I planned to update my Dorico license from Elements 3 to Elements 3.5 but found out the discount code CYBERWEEKS21 doesn’t apply. Is there a mistake somewhere, or is it an intentional decision to exclude the update? I remember last year the updates were included in the discount as well, so I was confused.
It’s correct: updates are not included in the Cyber Weeks promotion for Dorico. However, if you do buy an update to Dorico Elements 3.5 now you will be eligible for a free update to Dorico Elements 4 when it is released early in 2022.
Hello Daniel,
Thanks for the clarification!
On a small side note, when a customer has applied a coupon code in the shopping cart, I would suggest having a clear indication that a coupon has been successfully applied. When I entered the coupon code but the price didn’t change, I thought the code wasn’t applied at all. Having a clear indication would make me instantly realize that the code is valid, but doesn’t affect the specific item in my cart.
Thanks for the feedback. It does show the original price with a strikethrough, doesn’t it? But I will certainly pass this on to the web team.
Hello Daniel,
I tested again and can confirm that an original price with a strikethrough appears after applying the code, but I overlooked it before. Thanks for your help again!
Anyone else think it’s just a little bit mean not to include upgrades in the sale? A bit like - we already have you as a customer so we don’t need to offer any discounts…
If I’m being honest, I do feel a bit salty about it. But then again, by not taking advantage of the 50% off discounted update during Black Friday 2020 and instead purchasing the 30% off update during Black Friday 2021, I’m spending less because of the free update to Dorico 4. So all in all I’m ok with it.
Would you think it fair if Dorico offered you a discounted upgrade to your current software but one which did not include a free transition to Dorico 4?
Otherwise it would seem as if one were seeking a double discount?
Nice try though. 
I upgraded from Elements to Pro and got a nice discount which was already shown before entering the Cycberweeks22 code. There was no further reduction when I entered it. It is not clear if the update to 4.0 is also included… I hope it is.
Have you tried with CYBERWEEKS21? In any case, I gound that the price showed in the cart was already taking this code into account without even entering it, so entering it wouldn’t change anything.
Honestly speaking, no, I don’t think it’s mean. Saving money AND having it as soon as it is available is obviously getting the best of both worlds and while there are products that do offer pre-release discounts, I’m not aware that Steinberg have ever gone down that route. The important detail they are getting right is not p***ing customers off by asking them to pay to upgrade something they’ve only just bought.
As to the argument that they have you as a customer - that only lasts as long as customers are satisfied with the product. A couple of threadbare updates and even the most loyal are likely to start grumbling.
I can assure you that wasn’t our calculus. Originally, we would not have included any Dorico products at all in the Cyber Weeks promotion because Dorico 4 would have just been released, and we do not typically discount products immediately after they have been released.
The delay to Dorico 4’s release primarily caused by wanting to get Steinberg Licensing into the best possible shape gave us the opportunity to include some Dorico products in the promotion, but because we only recently ran a promotion (the End of Summer Sale, from the end of August until the middle of September), we didn’t want customers who bought in that promotion to feel short-changed, so we decided to include only the same products that had been included in that promotion. The conditions of this promotion are thus precisely the same as they were for the last one, for Dorico users.
You can buy an upgrade from Dorico Elements to Dorico Pro and save 30%, and receive a free update to Dorico Pro 4 when it’s released, so if you’re an Elements user that’s a great deal.
If you’re currently a Dorico Pro user running Dorico Pro 3, then it’s an ideal time to buy the update to Dorico Pro 3.5 even though it’s not discounted in the promotion, because it is cheaper than any of the updates to Dorico 4 will be, and you will get Dorico Pro 4 for no extra expenditure when it’s released.
If you’re currently running Dorico Pro 2 or even Dorico 1.x, then it’s still a good time to buy the update to Dorico Pro 3.5: you will pay no more than if you wait to update to Dorico Pro 4, plus you will get all of the new features added in versions 3 and 3.5 now (which is not an insubstantial amount of new functionality in its own right, to put it mildly!) and then get Dorico Pro 4 for no additional expenditure.
We are doing our best to be fair to our existing customers by providing an extended grace period for Dorico Pro 4 (normally it would be only four weeks, but it will have been several months by the time Dorico 4 is released). But updates provide a significant proportion of our revenue for Dorico, and it’s important to us that after a long development cycle we bring in as much from the update as possible. We will keep our end of the bargain by delivering a great deal of new functionality in Dorico 4, both specifically for Elements users, and of course also for Pro users.
Thank you sincerely for your detailed explanation, Daniel! I do believe that even though sometimes we customers want an even better deal, Steinberg really is trying hard to treat customers fairly. Looking forward to the version 4 release! 
The rebate and online shop system Steinberg uses works well and you are one of the few who use the correct VAT rates and do not keep the sales price identical and show a higher price without VAT for e.g Switzerland as many other well known orchestral library providers do. One reason I upgraded last week to Pro.
Hi, I opened Dorico Elements 3.5 and was offered the discounted upgrade to Pro 3.5 today, but it seems the coupon code no longer works. Has the sale ended?
IIRC, it ended on December 14th…
Welcome to the forum, @user391. I’m sorry to hear that you were offered the promotion after it closed. Let me check into why that is still appearing in Elements.